Would You Like to Be a Fashion Model?

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For decades, modeling was the silent profession. But not any longer. In interviews with The New York Times, young women discuss racism, sexual abuse and the fashion industry’s obsession with extreme youth.Published OnSept. 4, 2017CreditCreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times

For decades, modeling was a silent profession, where women were supposed to be seen and never heard.

But in February, just as Paris Fashion Week began, a group of high-profile models — Jourdan Dunn, Edie Campbell, Leomie Anderson, Candice Swanepoel and Joan Smalls — voiced their support for James Scully, a casting director, who had taken to Instagram to condemn two colleagues, Maida Gregori Boina and Rami Fernandes, for keeping models in an unlit stairwell for several hours.

“Thank you James, speak that TRUTH!!!” Ms. Dunn wrote.

A month later, models.com published results from a survey in which more than two dozen models discussed unprofessional working conditions, nonpayment and abuse in the industry. And in May an Instagram post by the model Ulrikke Hayer in which she accused a casting director for a Louis Vuitton cruise show of telling her to consume nothing but water for 24 hours, went viral. (The day after the water edict, she was informed that she would not walk in the show.)

“Now models have social media platforms, so even if they’re not incredibly well known, they can still have a relatively big following and articulate their views in a way they weren’t able to do before,” said Francesca Granata, director of the master’s program in fashion studies at Parsons.

Indeed, social media platforms have become part of their selling power, often included on their measurement cards. Many use these tools to express their belief that for all of its seeming glamour, the modeling industry remains overrun with problems that include labor exploitation, sexual harassment and body shaming.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

— This article covers female fashion models, but regardless of your gender, is being a fashion model something you would like to pursue? Why or why not?

— What are the pitfalls of the job, and what aspects of the work are surprising to you? Why?

— Is there anything you hope will change about the fashion modeling industry, now that fashion models are speaking out? If so, what, and why?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.